Language nut

• Author: Dan Tatum
• Pages: 7-7

ILLUSTRATION BY BRENAN SHARP/SHUTTERSTOCK

‘LANGUAGE NUT’

Thank you for Bryan A . Garner’s

wonderful art icle, “Contract ‘Busts,’ ”

December, page 22. I’m a 30-year

lawyer and a 20-year c ontract law-

yer. And though I freely admit being

guilty of many of the d rafting trans-

gressions you described , in the last

few years I have seen the error of my

ways, and I’ve been working agai nst

such busts, one contract at a time. I

was an English major in college , and

I’m still something of a langu age nut

(I’m a volunteer adult writing-skil ls

teacher and a big fan of The Eleme nts

of Style). Things like the dierence in

meaning between “may ” and “shall”

are quite meaning ful to me, and I’ve

always had a problem keeping “les-

sor” and “lessee” str aight.

Kudos and congratulations for

your hard and very impor tant work

with LawProse.org.

Dan Tatum

Dallas

FREE SPEECH

In Bob Carlson’s President’s

Message, “America: The Resilient

Land of the Free,” November, page

8, he manages, in one parag raph, to

both extol and condemn fr ee speech,

hardly missing a breat h. How can

he be an honest proponent of free

speech while providi ng examples of

speech that he refuse s to tolerate?

I am sad to see that our orga niza-

tion has elevated to its presidency a

man who apparently believes that

only speech that he supports is t o be

allowed or defended. I am hopeful

that his constituency i s more in the

camp of Voltaire, who said, “I detest

what you write, but I would give my

life to make it possible for you to con-

tinue to write.”

I, of course, will de fend to my

death President Carlson’s right to

express his self-contr adicting views

in a single paragraph so that t hose

reading the view s can fairly evalu-

ate them.

George M. Walker

Mobile, Alabama

2019 CALL FOR ENTRIES

for the

HARPER LEE PRIZE

FOR LEGAL FICTION

The prize is awarded annually to a published

work of fiction that best illuminates the role of

lawyers in society and their power to effect

change. Only works published in 2018 qualify.

Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2019.

Enter at harperleeprize.com

Letters

MARCH 2019 ABA JOURNAL || 7